Russian-controlled militants of the ”DPR” terrorist organization have opened fire to force the Special Monitoring Mission`s patrol out of the eastern part of the occupied Kozatske in Donetsk region, according to the OSCE spot report. ”At 11:07 on 28 March, an SMM patrol composed of six members and two armored vehicles approached a compound where...

Export losses due to the occupation of Donbas and Crimea amounted to US$12.9 billion, while total export losses of Ukraine amounted to $25.2 billion over the past years, that`s according to a draft export strategy, published on the website of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. ”The cost of export losses at the expense of these areas...

Ukrainian army Gen. Viktor Nazarov has been sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of neglect of duty and inaction in the case of an Il-76 transport aircraft downed in Luhansk in 2014, which resulted in the death of 40 Ukrainian paratroopers, according to the media outlet InfoResist. ”Viktor Mykolayovych Nazarov is found guilty and...

On March 27, Vladimir Putin`s press secretary Dmitry Peskov has reportedly arrived on a secret visit to the militant stronghold of Luhansk, OstroV online news outlet reported citing its source in Ukrainian intelligence community. The purpose of the visit has not been verified, OstroV writes. One of the possible versions is a potential change in...

A whole host of experts on eastern Europe have lined up to warn that the conflict in the eastern Ukraine could spark a widespread chemical disaster if industrial storage units of chlorine gas are damaged and the contents released into the environment, according to express.co.uk. The threat is not just hypothetical. On February 24 a stray...

The situation in the zone of the Anti-Terrorist Operation has become more intense as Russian-terrorist forces have attacked 88 times the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the past day, according to the ATO Headquarters. The shelling was most intensive on the Mariupol line, the ATO HA wrote on Facebook. View map in full size The...

The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine has reported that its drone came under small-arms fire after an SMM patrol of four mission members in two armored vehicles stopped 500 meters north-east of government-controlled Orikhove-Donetske (44km north-west of Luhansk) to launch it on Sunday, March 26. ”At about 13:10, a couple minutes...

Technology companies should no longer be able to provide encrypted messaging services that cannot be accessed in emergencies by the security services, British Home Secretary Amber Rudd said on Sunday, according to The Guardian. Speaking after it emerged that the police were investigating reports that Khalid Masood had used the encrypted WhatsApp...

The Central Election Commission of Ukraine (CEC) believes there are no conditions for holding elections in the temporarily occupied territories of Donbas, chairman Mykhailo Okhendovskiy told journalists at an international conference on the latest information technologies in the election process on March 27, according to an UNIAN correspondent....

The Kremlin sees no real ”prospects” for the Normandy Four leaders to meet anytime soon, Vladimir Putin`s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to an UNIAN correspondent in Russia. ”At least we are not aware of any prospects that could help to ensure some kind of advancement,” Peskov said, responding to a request to clarify if is a...